The invention relates to supplying fuel to gas fueled appliances, which commonly burn natural gas (NG) or propane gas (LP), for example. More specifically, the invention relates to a gas convenience outlet for connecting a grill and other portable gas appliances to a home gas supply or other substantially stationary supply of fuel gas.
One having ordinary skill in the art, the average homeowner, and others know that valves and couplings for portable propane gas canisters and tanks are regulated and standardized. This regulation is observable in the commonly known backyard gas grill, which typically is fueled with propane gas from a refillable, twenty pound tank that is now provided with what is commonly known as a Type-1 or QCC-1 valve.
While this common fuel source of a refillable tank provides portability to the appliances with which it is connected, the appliances are typically parked at a designated location in a user's back yard or on a user's patio. Thus, the beneficial aspect of the fuel source being portable is not important when the appliance is used as a stationary device, and not as a portable device. Further, typical fuel tanks are limited in capacity. Thus, a user may prefer to have at least two tanks, so a full, backup tank is available in case a tank empties while in use. Even with a back up tank, reliance upon a compact tank-based fuel supply requires some level of user discipline to refill emptied tanks Emptying a tank in use and finding that the back up tank is also empty is not an unusual occurrence.
A stationary, bulk supply of fuel gas for household use, such as a 500 gallon tank of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG, which includes propane) typically is pressurized to about 50 to 200 pounds per square inch (psi) and includes a pressure regulator that reduces that pressure to about 10 psi. Bulk gas tanks are generally located outside of a house. At the house, another regulator reduces the gas pressure to about ½ psi before the gas is routed to the furnace or other indoor appliance. Prior gas outlet fixtures that used home heating gas for outdoor gas appliances, such as outdoor gas grills, were designed to operate on low pressure gas and therefore had to tap into the line inside the house, where the pressure has already been reduced to ½ psi. The gas line would then have to be routed outside of the house through an opening in the side or foundation of the house, and the gas line would then terminate in a special outlet fitting that is not compatible with the traditional fitting of a gas grill. A traditional gas grill also includes a pressure regulator that is designed to reduce the pressure from a twenty pound portable gas tank to ½ psi. Thus, the gas grill operator desiring to utilize an LPG supply with a prior gas outlet product, using LPG already at ½ psi, would first have to remove the pressure-reducing regulator from the gas grill. The pressure in the house gas line, to which the gas outlet box is connected, had already been reduced to ½ psi. A second inline pressure regulator would unnecessarily restrict the flow of gas, producing inconsistent results and undesirable performance, especially for high performance gas grills that require higher volume of gas. In addition, the gas grill operator had to change the conventional gas grill fitting to make it compatible with the gas outlet box. Prior options available to consumers were therefore inconvenient, inefficient, and cumbersome.
Thus, a need for a convenient connection of a gas fueled appliance with a stationary supply of fuel gas may be readily understood.